Post #268798 by stuff-o-rama on Sun, Nov 26, 2006 2:07 PM

Recently, I've been driving back and forth to Huntington Beach area to help out my Aunt and Uncle who are both in their mid 80's. My Aunt is a "collector" of sorts, the type who will not throw away a single item as "someone can use it" (depression era syndrome). As the junk in boxes has taken over their house, she finally was convinced to let go of some of it. She wanted me to clean out her sewing room as I sew and she wanted me to have her sewing gear as she no longer has the energy to sew or even get to the room. It took us a week just to clean up and organize one room. My Uncle was so impressed that we got her to let go of so much stuff he asked if I was brave enough to come back and attack the back patio. For the past 15 years the boxes that no longer fit into the sewing room ended up in the back patio. His bar that he built in the 60's was covered to the point he could no longer access it. He wanted to be able to stand behind it and make a couple of cocktails for company that was coming in a few weeks from then.

Three weeks later, I went back and he unveiled this

The bar is the brown thing on the left.

Three days later, after organizing her craft supplies into clear bins and tossing amazing amounts of papers into the recycling bins, we exposed the bar. I spent another half a day oiling it and washing all of the barware that was covered in dirt from being buried for over a decade.

You can't build Rome in a day, but at least he can get to his bar now! Here's a couple of more photos of it.

My Uncle built this bar himself. He said he might have gotten the plans from either a Sunset Magazine or Popular Science. The thing he was most excited about was that I found all of the missing pegs to his ship's wheel clock as the Grandkids horsing around had knocked most of them off and he could never find them. He has an amazing collection of vintage bar signs, the ones with the rotating designs in the back that make the water appear to be moving.

On November 10th, he celebrated the Marine Corps Birthday with friends and family by serving up cocktails. My cousin took pics as I ran out of film (I know, I didn't think to bring the digital camera) but hasn't sent them to me yet. (He was a POW in WWII, I mentioned it on this link so this is a big family event for him. He doesn't like to drink on Veteran's Day)

I felt there were people on here who could appreciate a cool home bar which is why I decided to share this with you.